Act 1, Chap 2: Let's talk about Fear.

Thanks for letting me know! I’ll check it out and get it fixed real quick!

EDIT: Alright, it's been fixed. It was an issue on my part when I originally made the post but it's fixed and the link works now!

Once the shops were opened, the three groups went out with about fifteen minutes between them. Oliver, Kelly, and Nolan were the last to make it to the grave site. When they got there, they overheard Melanie explaining what had happened there to George and Norris.

Leo looked concerned as he stood to the sides with Zoey and Keith, making eye contact with Oliver and approaching him when he got close enough. “Keith says there’s already two people out there. I never saw anyone, but he swears that he saw two people walking around deeper in the island.”

“It’s not Nathaniel or Brianne, we just saw them at the apartments.” Oliver looked back at Kelly and Nolan. “Which way did they go? We’ll go the same way they did so that we have a higher chance of confronting them before you and the kids or Melanie’s group.”

He crossed his arms, looking a bit annoyed. “Nolan and Kelly are younger than Zoey and Keith.”

“That’s true and you have a point, so do you want to go after the people that Keith saw?”

Leo shook his head, still seeming annoyed. “Fine, you and the actual kids can go after them.”

Oliver paused, realizing that Leo was taking the conversation way more seriously than he was. “I wasn’t trying to upset you or offend you, I could tell that you didn’t want to go so I offered to go for you.”

Nolan and Kelly watched the interaction before Kelly stepped forward, stopping next to Oliver. “Leo, are you okay? Something’s not right with you right now.”

Nolan looked over to Melanie to see that she was no longer talking to George and Norris, the three of them were now watching Leo and Oliver as if they expected something to happen between the two.

He walked past everyone else, taking himself in the direction that Keith had seen the people walking, knowing that Oliver and Kelly would follow after him.

The rest of the residents watching stood in surprise for a moment, knowing that Nolan normally would never send himself first. Oliver and Kelly went to catch up with him, leaving Leo standing on his own.

---

The three waited until they were out of sight until they spoke with each other. Oliver was now leading the two teenagers through the jungle, following a single set of footprints that Kelly had found once they entered the muddy area.

Oliver thought about his conversation with Nolan the night before and noticed that no matter how many times he looked him in the eyes, he never changed. The only other person that had happened to so far was Brianne. He thought it was weird but he knew that Nolan was just a weird kid, there was nothing supernatural about him, it was probably just that he had nothing major to lose.

“We know it’s not Nathaniel and Brianne, so who’s out there?” Nolan had his hands in his pockets, he seemed to be fidgeting with something in his right hand.

Kelly shrugged, watching Oliver tuck under a tree for a moment and use the mud to slide back onto his feet. She mimicked his movements and Nolan mimicked hers, the three moved as one and never got too far from each other, “All of the people who know something is wrong with the island are involved in the groups so it would have to be a pair who either wandered too far to try and be away from the other residents for a while or there’s people who are investigating on their own.”

“And yet I don’t think that either of those are our answers.” Oliver thought of something he had been intending to ask Kelly for a bit but he had never had the opportunity. “Kelly, do you know if Purna was investigating the island before she went to you?”

“Not so much the island but the apartment community.” Kelly stopped walking for a moment, only brought back to reality by Nolan physically pushing her forward. “What were we talking about?”

Oliver turned around, stopping the two teenagers. Something felt wrong to him, the air had changed pretty quickly and Kelly just forgetting what she was saying was out of character for her. He looked at Kelly for just a few seconds before shaking his head and pointing in the opposite direction. “Go back. Nolan, go with her.”

Kelly had broken out into a sweat and gone completely pale, she was trembling as she stood in place. “I can’t move, what’s happening to me?” She let out a panicked breath that turned into hyperventilation when she realized that nothing was happening to Oliver and Nolan. “Why is it just me?”

Oliver only took his eyes off of Kelly for half a minute, he and Nolan were looking at each other and in that half of a minute, Kelly was gone.

Nolan started running first, Oliver ran alongside him. The two called out for Kelly over and over again until they reached a slope.

They couldn’t see the bottom of it but knew they didn’t have the time to hesitate. Nolan froze up and Oliver grabbed his arm, pulling him down with him. The two got caught about halfway down and lost their footing and their hold of each other. They rolled to the bottom, Nolan stopped on his own and Oliver stopped when he collided with a tree.

“Oliver! Are you okay?” Nolan was standing over him in a matter of seconds, trying to help him to his feet.

Oliver tuned him out for a moment, hearing harsh whispers at the top of the slope. He got to his feet as quickly as he could, grabbing Nolan by the arm once again and rushed them deeper into the jungle’s curtains.

He hurried along with Nolan until he couldn’t move anymore, the pain in his back only continuing to grow worse since he had hit the tree. He pointed behind Nolan. “There’s better coverage back there, go just a few paces that way and I’ll stay in your sight but you need to give me a minute before we can get back to moving. I can’t do it right now.”

“What about Kelly?’ Nolan pushed back as Oliver could hear the whispers getting closer to them.

“I don’t know where Kelly is and I’m not going to leave the jungle until I find her, even if that means you have to go back home without me, but right now my priority is keeping you safe because I can’t lose both of you.”

Nolan looked at Oliver before he followed the direction that Oliver had originally pointed in, hiding himself at the base of a tree that was covered with brush.

Oliver leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath as he slid down and sat there for a few minutes. The whispers never moved, they just became clearer to him. “The sisters and brothers will turn on each other, there’s no trust here.”

He had already figured out that Nolan wasn’t hearing what he was, otherwise he would have reacted before Oliver did. He was thankful that it was only him hearing the whispers, he knew he couldn’t chase down Nolan. He’d seen the boy run before and he was already pretty quick, if he put fear into the mix and it was unlikely that he’d be caught.

After about five minutes of resting, Oliver got back up and Nolan immediately went to his side. Nolan looked around for a moment before focusing his eyes on Oliver’s back. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m not surprised, let’s go.” Oliver waited for Nolan to go ahead of him, wanting to be able to keep an eye on him while they went along.

It wasn’t long before Nolan started showing the same signs that Kelly did before she disappeared. He started sweating and he went pale, his walking turned into stumbling as he started trembling.

He turned back to Oliver, his breathing uncontrollable at that point. “Oliver, don’t let it happen.. Please don’t let it take me, I don’t want to go, please.”

Oliver knew that Nolan was going to disappear next and that he couldn’t stop it. He limped to Nolan and pulled the boy into a tight embrace, listening to Nolan’s sobs as he worked up the ability to say anything. “Nolan, listen to me. You’re going to be okay, I promise I’m not going to let anything hurt you. You’re going to disappear and I don’t know where you’re going to go, but I know that you’re going to live and I’m going to bring you and Kelly home, alright? I promise you that.”

Nolan’s cries grew quieter until Oliver looked up and just as it had happened with Kelly, he disappeared from his arms once Oliver looked away.

Oliver froze in the moment, looking at the empty area around him. The whispers silenced as he stood alone. His eyes stayed fixated on the empty space directly ahead of him where Nolan was not even a minute ago.

He had a strong feeling that if he continued going deeper into the jungle that the same thing that happened to the kids would happen to him and that’s what he was hoping for.

His priority had shifted, he needed to get Nolan and Kelly back and he believed for that to happen, the island had to take him too.

Oliver went deeper into the island until he started sweating, his legs started trembling and he stopped in his tracks. He closed his eyes and from that moment, felt like he was just drifting away.

---

“You’ve already told us that you know more about the island than we do, so how do you not know where we are?” The first voice that Oliver heard could immediately be placed; Erica.

Oliver sat up and opened his eyes, staring directly across the room at Erica. “Why are you yelling at an actual kid?”

He didn’t actually know who she was questioning, but given that Kelly and Nolan were by his side and Kelly had been researching the island before anyone else, he could only assume that it was Kelly that Erica was targeting. “Because that kid, Oliver, knows where we are and isn’t telling us anything.”

“Probably because she doesn’t know where we are.” Oliver quickly snapped back, using the wall behind him to push himself to his feet. “Who’s out here with you?”

Nolan pointed to the wall to Oliver’s left, Oliver followed his direction to see Purna was standing on her own with her arms crossed and a look of pure, concentrated anger on her face. “She won’t talk to us.”

“I can only assume why.” Oliver turned back to Erica. “You brought her out here to get even with her because she got into it with you a few days ago, right?”

Erica rolled her eyes. “I didn’t come out here with her.”

“Don’t lie to me, Erica.” Oliver leaned against the wall, the pain in his back still flaring up any time he tried to move. “One of you came out with someone else and if it wasn’t with each other then where’s the other person? I know the grudges you hold and taking it out on Purna is just wrong, she doesn’t even remember what happened with you.”

“That’s not true.” Purna finally spoke. It sounded as if she were talking through gritted teeth. “I remembered when we got here and frankly, you’ve got a lot of nerve trying to get even with me when you’re the one who was in the wrong in the first place.”

Nolan leaned into Oliver’s side, keeping his voice to a whisper. “The exit is behind Purna, she just doesn’t know it. She hasn’t taken her eyes off of Erica since Kelly’s been here. She said that Erica tried to kill her.”

“Purna, stop. That’s in the past and it’s time to move on. We’re all in the same situation so let’s work together to get out of it.” He pushed himself off the wall, motioning towards the wall that Purna was standing in front of. “We’ll start over that way and work our way out.”

Nolan and Kelly went to Purna’s side, Oliver stayed in place. Erica stopped next to him, a look of disdain in her eyes. “How do you know how to get out?”

“Because I listened to other people instead of throwing out wild accusations.” He waited until the others turned their backs to them before he grabbed Erica’s wrist, lowering his voice. “Empty your pockets, I don’t trust you.”

“That sounds like a personal problem.” Erica took her wrist back immediately and ended up behind Kelly after Purna and Nolan figured out how to get out of the room.

Going through every room, Oliver could only really compare the building to a temple. It was confusing, hard to navigate, and uncomfortably humid.

Nolan and Kelly stuck to Oliver’s side while Purna led the four others through the temple, Erica was between Purna and Oliver, Nolan, and Kelly.

When Purna reached a stopping point, she looked back at the four that were following behind her. “Did any of you bring something sharp? This is where we need to go but it’s sealed off, I need to break the seal.”

Nolan reached into his right pocket, finally breaking out what he had been fidgeting with. A pocket knife. He went to Purna and flicked the knife open, handing it over to her. He stepped back and allowed Purna to get to work on the seal.

Erica had her arms crossed as she took a few steps closer to the wall and Purna. “I’m sorry, Purna. I wasn’t in the right and I shouldn’t have even tried to retaliate. I was angry that someone stood up to me.”

Purna didn’t look at Erica, she continued chiseling away at the seal. “That’s nice.”

It was clear to everyone in the room, including Purna, that Erica didn’t like her response. She got closer to Purna, uncrossing her arms. “I’m apologizing to you and admitting I was wrong.”

Purna turned her head to face Erica but stayed with the pocket knife stretched as far up as she could. “You can apologize, that’s a good thing to do but I don’t have to forgive you. You brought me out here to intentionally harm me and I can’t help but feel it’s because you were told that I didn’t remember anything. That’s psychotic, Erica.”

“Explain that to me because I really don’t understand how making a simple bad decision one time is psychotic.” Feeling the tension between the two rising, Oliver held out his hand to the teenagers behind him to make them stay in place as he slowly went forward to get closer to Erica and Purna.

The very moment that Purna let her guard down, the room went dead silent as everyone slowly realized the next move. Before Purna could react, Erica charged her and shoved her right shoulder into Purna’s chest, knocking her to the ground. Erica snatched the pocket knife from Purna as she fell.

Erica stood above her, knife in hand. “I didn’t bring you out here with the intention of harming you, but since you’re so convinced that that was my big plan then let’s make it happen.”

Oliver could tell by the look on Purna’s face that whatever she was going to say would only make the situation worse for her. To avoid it, he dove for Erica. He already knew he was going to get hurt in some way, he just couldn’t have anticipated what had happened.

The dive for the knife was the last thing that Oliver remembered.

What Nolan saw was Oliver dive for Erica, he was directly behind her. He wrapped his left arm around her torso and pulled her back, he tried to grab the knife with his right hand.

Erica was trying to push away with her left arm and she held the knife in her right hand. With both of them vying for it, Erica made one swipe behind her and Oliver immediately let go of her.

The first bit of blood that Nolan saw came from Oliver’s right hand, he was looking down at it too. When he looked up at Erica, that’s when she dropped the knife and Purna shot up off the ground. Kelly ran for the knife, Purna ran to try to catch Oliver. Nolan and Erica stood in place, Nolan in fear and Erica in shock over what she had just done.

Purna got Oliver on the ground and immediately looked at Nolan. “You’re the only one here wearing an undershirt, I need your top shirt. Kelly, you said that George is out there somewhere so start working on the seal.”

Nolan took off his over-shirt and slowly took it to Purna. She took it straight from his hands and started ripping it. The entire time she was taking apart his shirt, Nolan couldn’t take his eyes away from what Erica had done.

When his hand got cut, Oliver unintentionally moved it and took away what was providing any sort of barrier between his face and the knife. Erica had sliced through Oliver’s left eye.

Before Kelly could cut through the seal, Brianne was in the room behind them. She shook her head, looking down at Oliver. “This should serve as a decent enough lesson for snooping where you guys don’t belong. Well, four of you anyways. One of you still has a lot to learn.”

Nolan watched Brianne crouch next to Purna. She rested a hand on Oliver’s forehead and then he vanished. She did the same to Purna, then went to Erica and did it to her. Kelly stopped chiseling and allowed Brianne to do it to her, finally she went to Nolan and put her hand to his forehead.

---

Oliver woke up in his own apartment. He looked at his right hand to see that it had now been bandaged. Before he got out of bed, he tried closing his right eye and leaving his left open. The result was complete darkness.

He let out a sigh as he got out of bed and stumbled to the dresser, changing his clothes and going to the shared bathroom. Looking in the mirror, he looked at the patch that was now covering his left eye. He briefly lifted it to look at the cut, only to see that it looked completely healed, he just couldn’t see anything from the eye.

The door to the bathroom opened and Purna entered with a towel in hand. She stopped behind him and looked at him, seeming a bit uncomfortable. “I heard what happened, I’m sorry about your eye. I know that doesn’t really bring your eye back and you don’t even know me, but at least you lived, right?”

He nodded, lowering the cloth in front of his eye. “Yeah, that’s a positive. Thank you for the condolences.”

He left the bathroom and immediately ran into Leo, who looked surprised to see him. “You shouldn’t be up on your own, not this soon.”

Oliver smiled and shook his head. “I’m fine, I just have to pay more attention to my right and left directions now.” The two got on the elevator, going to the first floor and into the kitchen where they got their plates put together for breakfast. “What’s the plan for today?”

They sat at the third table and started their meals. “You’re staying here, I’m supposed to meet with Kelly to go over the journal entries she got while she was out with you.” Leo paused. “That being said, if you want to tell me the truth about what happened to your eye then I want to hear it. I know you didn’t attack Erica.”

Oliver stopped eating, feeling his stomach drop in an instant. “Is that what was said?”

“Yeah, that’s the story that Brianne came up with.” Leo set his fork down. “She’s pulling you, Purna, Nolan, and Kelly later today to make sure that that’s what stuck.”

“I…” Oliver thought for a moment. “Erica had a knife on Purna, I grabbed her to try to stop her. I didn’t attack Erica, though.”

Leo stayed looking at his plate. “If I were you, I would go to Nathaniel and Brianne before this blows up on you. She’s trying to punish you, you might just have to talk her down.”

“Where is Erica? Is she okay?”

Leo shrugged. “Nobody’s seen her since you guys have been back. Brianne probably knows, though.”

[Go to Brianne now]
[Wait for the meeting]

Poor Oliver Barker, does what he's told and still manages to lose an eye and the respect of forty-nine other islanders.

I will say that in the situation, despite Oliver losing his eye, Erica had it the worst. She and Oliver were pretty close friends prior to the beginning of the story and her understanding of the situation is a lot messier than what the other islanders have been told.

The event was in fact supposed to happen differently but in a storytelling way, if that makes sense. Things happened the way they did because of what Nathaniel said. If back in chapter one, Oliver and Leo tried to intervene with Purna's deal, it would have gotten Nathaniel into a massive amount of trouble with the spirit so he wouldn't have been inclined to warn Oliver at the beginning of this chapter.

That reminds me, I never actually put out the previous chapter's alternate choices, whoops.

Nathaniel knew Brianne was mortified. Purna had broken through her block and knew almost everything about her life leading up to her arrival on the island. Nobody was supposed to know anything before the island.

As if that wasn’t enough, there was the new guy who already seemed to know a lot about the people who were there. Brianne wouldn’t be able to get rid of his memories until he fell asleep, which wouldn’t be in the middle of the day and it would only be harder for her if Oliver was still actively fighting her.

She knew that Nathaniel was turning his back on the island in hopes that his own spirit would be released. She knew that’s what he wanted and she knew that Purna had made a promise to him.

“I fail to understand why you gave away a portion of your knowledge to her when you know that I’ve given so much to keep her from remembering. Now I have to hold off an actual detective and her.” Brianne paced back and forth, her hands continuously running through her hair.

“Do you think it’s because you challenged Oliver?” She spun to look at Nathaniel, waiting for him to explain himself. “She was his lawyer before they got here. She’s gotten used to defending him and while you can replace their memories, you can’t change their feelings and sentiments towards other people. Leo is a perfect example of that, so are Denver and Gita.”

Brianne’s face fell, she looked defeated for just a moment before her anger returned. “I completely forgot about Gita. I forgot about Gita, Robyn, Julio, and George. Frank can’t run into them, no matter what.”

“He already met George. That was the first person he met.”

---

Dinner was tough for Oliver, just because Nathaniel hadn’t gone through with what he had said he would so far.

The other residents continued giving sideways looks to Oliver and Leo. Oliver knew it was only because Leo wouldn’t turn his back on Oliver. Nolan and Kelly both seemed confused over the meeting that had occurred and Purna looked to be on edge.

At the tenth table, Brianne was talking away with Flora and Olivia, which Oliver already knew wasn’t with any good intention.

Nobody at the third table made a move until Nathaniel came to the table, whispering something to Leo and Purna. The two shared a look before Purna chuckled, shaking her head. “You lead it, I’ll jump in.”

Leo nodded, adjusting the hat on his head before getting out of his seat and facing the tenth table. “Alright, I think something needs to be addressed with all residents right now.” His eyes stayed focused on Brianne, who stopped talking with Olivia and Flora when Leo stood up. “I’ve been hearing a lot about an incident between Erica and Oliver. Until we know the facts, we shouldn’t discuss it as if we know that it happened. In actuality, there’s evidence pointing to the fact that it didn’t happen at all.”

Nathaniel returned to his seat at the fourth table. The room stayed silent until Denver spoke from the tenth table. “Were you there? If what was said to have happened with Erica didn’t occur then what happened to his eye?”

Leo leaned down to Purna. “I can’t outright call Erica a liar here or Gary’s going to be talking with his fists.”

“Then I will.” She got out of her seat and ran her hands down the front of her shirt to smooth it out. “Oliver Barker is six feet and one hundred and eighty pounds, that’s about the average weight for that height. Erica is almost an entire foot shorter and eighty pounds less. That’s not a healthy weight for her size and if I remember correctly from George’s notes, Erica has an iron deficiency, does she not?”

George nodded slowly. “Anemia.”

“I’m not going to beat around the bush, you and I both know anemia but to spare our time I’ll ask just one question. People with anemia are susceptible to bruising with very little pressure, right?’ George gave another nod in response. “Then where’s her bruises? The story is that he had her wrists in his hands and that he gripped her so hard that she physically couldn’t pull away. That amount of pressure would have left bruises on her and there’s not a single mark on her wrists.”

“I’ll refute it by advising you to look at Oliver’s eye. The same day in question, he was stabbed and his eye is completely healed over. It’s been a single day so if his eye healed over that fast, why would a bruise stick?” Denver seemed to be stuck on the subject, unwilling to back down from the argument.

Purna rolled up her pants leg and revealed a bruise on her left knee. “I got this bruise when I fell on the pier a week ago. As it should be at this time in the healing process, it’s yellow. The island does influence how quickly injuries heal, but bruises aren’t injuries.” She pulled her pant leg back down. “Bruises don’t cause you to lose copious amounts of blood, they don’t put you at risk of infection, they won’t lead to an amputation or anything like that so there’s no reason for a bruise’s healing process to be sped up.”

“Were you there?” Purna looked at the tenth table, only watching Denver but briefly seeing Melanie with something in her lap.

“I actually was there, Denver. Do you know who wasn’t there?” She looked away from whatever it was that Melanie had, knowing she needed to focus. “Brianne wasn’t there. I was there, Nolan was there, and so was Kelly.”

Melanie whispered to Denver, standing up from her seat and revealing what she had in her hands to be a shoe box. A shoe box that had gone missing from Purna’s closet earlier that day. “I want to bring attention to the reason that Purna is so heavily invested in defending Oliver and reveal her bias.” She opened the shoe box, grabbing a photo from it and a smaller object. “Purna and Oliver were engaged. When, I can’t be certain, and why they’ve been pretending to not know each other is beyond me but I think what she's saying right now should be taken with a grain of salt.”

Purna turned her back to Melanie and leaned down to Oliver, lowering her voice to a sharp whisper. “What is she talking about?”

Oliver shrugged and got out of his seat. “On that topic, I want to pick at something just for a moment. I want everyone to think, who all has Melanie been married to? Jerry, Leo, and Norris, that’s it?” He paused. “No, it’s not. Melanie and Leo have been married twice, they were married prior to the island. They’re going to deny any memory of it and I believe them when they say that they don’t have any memory of it because I have genuinely no memory of Purna before coming here. Also, I think that if a relationship is serious enough to progress to an engagement, your partner would meet your family. Olivia didn’t know her before she came here.”

He turned back to Purna to see that she looked a bit relieved, as if she didn’t know how she was going to counter Melanie’s statement. Purna went to the tenth table, taking the box and the objects back from Melanie before she returned to stand with Leo and Oliver. “She is right but we can deal with this on our own later. Leo, touch on the memories, I need a minute.”

Leo still seemed to be in shock from Oliver’s revelation but he went on as Purna had told him to. “Oliver is right, I don’t remember being married to Melanie before the island. I would also like to point out that for years, Kelly has been looking for her family and she was born on the island. How does she not know? How do they not at least own up to having a child? They don’t remember they have one and she doesn’t remember who they are.”

Before anyone at another table could speak, Robert Tran got out of his seat with a wide grin. “You guys have finally brought it to everyone’s attention. I want to ask if anyone remembers the day that Ronnie and Keith arrived. They arrived together and they were both in military uniform. The part you guys aren’t going to remember is that Ronnie is older than Keith. Amos was almost thirty years old when he arrived but now he’s sixteen.”

Nolan nodded from his seat but refused to stand or look up from the table. “Before anyone asks if that can be backed up, I can attest to what Robert, Oliver, Purna, and Leo have all said.”

Melanie sat back down across the room, prompting Leo to sit back down. Purna sat down while looking through the shoebox and Robert sat down, leaving only Oliver standing. As he was going to sit back down, Gary finally spoke up. “What does Amos and Ronnie’s age have to do with Erica getting attacked?”

“Nothing directly.” Oliver turned to look at Gary. “The ages of the two were provided as an example, the relationships that nobody remembers from before were provided as an example. There’s a significant amount of mental manipulation going on here and people are either completely forgetting or misremembering certain situations. That’s what happened.”

“Then what really happened? To misremember a situation, something had to happen and you essentially just admitted that something did happen.” Gary continued watching Oliver as he sat back down.

Nolan shared a look with Kelly and Purna before taking a stand and sticking his hand in his right pocket, fidgeting with what Oliver knew to be a pocket knife. “I went with Oliver and Kelly into the jungle. We ended up in some sort of temple and Erica and Purna were already there. Erica was acting super weird and she was yelling at Kelly over where we were, Kelly didn’t know how to answer her. Purna had told us that she and Erica had a struggle before they ended up there and that Erica was trying to hurt her because she was mad at her.”

Purna and Erica had started eye contact when Nolan began retelling events, their eye contact hadn’t broken once and seemed to be fueling anger between the two of them. “I don’t remember any of this.” Erica crossed her arms, seeming to talk to just Purna.

“That’s the point that’s being made, let the boy speak.” The other residents seemed to be taken aback by Purna’s tone, which sounded like it could have cut through any silence or create a silence if she wanted it to.

Nolan looked between the two, waiting for Purna’s permission to go on. “Oliver was the last one there. He and Erica shared a few words but he didn’t even get close to her, he was always separated from Erica by the rest of us. Purna at one point had a knife in her hand and she was working on slicing something, Erica apologized to her, and Purna struck a nerve by saying she wouldn’t forgive Erica. Erica attacked Purna and took the knife from her. It wasn’t until Erica attacked Purna that Oliver got close to Erica. He grabbed her from behind and was trying to defend Purna, she cut his hand and stabbed his eye but he never did anything that would have actually harmed her.”

Kelly bit her bottom lip before interjecting. “That’s not the full truth. He did grab Erica’s wrist when he first got there, he told her to empty her pockets but he didn’t trust her. I recall everything the same way, though.”

“How reliable.” Erica rolled her eyes, her arms still crossed. “I believe that Nolan is attempting to cover for Oliver, I don’t trust his recollection of events.”

“I really don’t understand how making a simple bad decision one time is psychotic.” Purna put the shoebox on the table. “That’s what you said to me before you attacked me so I want you to tell me how one flaw in his recollection dismisses his entire statement.”

Brianne seemed to be in complete disarray as Purna jumped back into the argument, she knew she had to step in somewhere and find a flaw but Purna was making a conscious decision to not throw in any information unless someone asked for it specifically. “Do you have proof that Erica attacked you?”

Purna glared at her, shaking her head. “That’s low, but I do.” She looked at the tenth table. “Can someone please get the kids out of here? I would prefer it if Olivia and Flora stayed.”

The residents of the tenth table whispered among each other before Sierra got up from her seat and gathered the children from the room, leading them all out of the dining room.

All eyes stayed on Purna as she looked around the room, her eyes landing on the floor. “You don’t have to do this.” Oliver whispered to her as he noticed she suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.

“No, I do.” She briefly looked at the new guy at the forth table. “I’m very sorry your first night has turned into this, I swear this isn’t normal.” She then broke eye contact, looking at the ceiling as she unbuttoned her shirt and took it off, setting it on the table behind her and exposing the marks that Erica had made on her chest when they collided and the marks that the wall had left after she had gotten hit by Erica.

Leo and Oliver looked at each other, Nolan let out an audible gasp as he saw Purna’s chest. The room stayed silent, even Erica looked a bit startled as she looked. “Did I really do that?”

Oliver nodded, standing up and grabbing Purna’s shirt from the table. He draped it over her shoulders before guiding her out of the dining room. She continued to keep her head back and staring at the ceiling until they got out of the dining room.

She barely lowered her head before tears that had begun swelling up while she was looking up fell to the ground. She broke into a quiet sob, going to the elevator.

While on the elevator, she fixed her shirt and composure as if someone would be waiting on the third floor when they got there. Instead, the doors opened to an empty floor and the two left the elevator.

At the door to her apartment, she turned back to Oliver with a somber look on her face. “I’m sorry, I have no idea what happened right there.”

“I do.” They went into her apartment and sat across from each other. “You went too far out of your comfort zone too quickly. You’re used to being the lawyer, not the victim and most certainly not a piece of evidence. You got overwhelmed.”

“I guess that’s a possibility.” She went to the closet, grabbing a set of clothes. “I’m going to take a shower, I’ll talk to you later.” She went to the door and waited, turning back to him. “You can tell when Brianne or Nathaniel is around, right? If you’re sleeping, does it wake you up?”

“Yes to both of those questions.”

She hesitated at the door, looking down to the floor. “Will you stay with me tonight? I’ve just put a massive target on my back and I feel that I’m in terrible danger now.”

Oliver got up from his seat, meeting her at the door. “That’s fine. I’m going to go back downstairs to grab the box that you left and some leftovers since neither of us ate but I’ll be back before you get back, does that sound okay?”

She gave a thumbs up, leaving the apartment and going to the bathroom at the end of the hall.

---

Oliver did exactly what he said he was going to do, he went down for the box only to find that it was missing. Ronnie told him that he had seen Leo leave with the box, so he wasn’t too concerned with it.

He got extra food from Rocky and stayed in the kitchen for a moment to talk with him. “How were we so convinced that you attacked Erica when none of us really knew anything? It just doesn’t make sense to me, like can we genuinely not think for ourselves?”

Oliver recognized that Rocky was trying to smooth over believing the accusation, but to him it was a question that needed to be answered. “No, nobody on this island can think for themselves. There’s something seriously wrong with the island and it’s been ignored up to pretty recently.”

The door to the kitchen swung open and the new guy came in, looking through his backpack while he was walking. He looked up and met eyes with Rocky, stopping in his tracks. “Rocky Crouse.”

Rocky slowly nodded, seeming uncomfortable. Oliver looked back at the new guy and studied him for a moment before shaking his head. “What’s your deal?” He paused, looking at Rocky and then at the new guy. “Actually, you and I should probably talk alone, I think that’d be more beneficial for the both of us.” He turned back to Rocky, grabbing the paper bag from the counter. “I’ll talk to you later, thank you again for the food.”

He left the kitchen, the new guy followed after him and only talked to him after they were in the elevator. “We couldn’t talk in front of Rocky because he doesn’t know what’s going on?”

Oliver nodded. “He doesn’t and he’s not ready to know what’s going on. How do you know everyone here?”

“Missing persons reports gathered and narrowed down based on economic standing, education, physical appearance. A lot of people here were pretty important where they were before. Gita was part of a family of royals, Julio was a diplomat, Rocky was a world famous chef, four actors, a brian surgeon, a former president, two singers, an artist, an ivy league graduate, a pilot. That’s a lot of prominent people who just vanished and from what I’ve seen so far, most of them don’t understand that they’re missing from the real world.” He looked at Oliver. “How do you know what’s going on?”

“I don’t fully know what’s going on, I just know whatever’s unfolding in front of me. I would say that I know the same as you, but it seems like you know more than I do.” The elevator doors opened and Oliver stepp out, looking back at Frank for a split second. “There’s three people I would talk to if I were looking for answers, but for the sake of staying out of trouble I’m only going to advise that you seek out Robert.”

---

Every night since Brianne’s return, Oliver couldn’t sleep a full night. He couldn’t understand if it was a fear thing or if it was just no longer a necessity for him.

That night he stayed awake most of the night, laying on the couch and staring at the ceiling. Purna’s door had a small lift to it, as if the room was carpeted before she lived there. The lift led to the light from outside the apartment being cast into the apartment, oddly going to the ceiling instead of the floor.

Oliver watched the light, he watched the shadows pass the room for hours until his chest felt weighted and a shadow stopped in front of the door. He sat up and looked at the bottom of the door, seeing that the person was staying in place.

He knew that the only way Purna’s knowledge would be protected is if she were awake so he went to the bedside and lightly shook her awake. He waited until she was actually on her feet before he left her side, not wanting to risk her falling back asleep.

He went to the door and saw the shadow still on the other side of the door. He opened it and saw a woman who he hadn’t seen before. She was an older woman with her hair dyed an almost midnight blue color. He could tell it was dyed by her blonde roots breaking through at the top of her head.

They stood in silence, seeming to size each other up before the woman offered a gentle smile, closing her brown eyes as she did so. “Hello, Mr. Barker. You were not the one I was expecting to find here, but it is no problem!”

“Who were you expecting and who are you?”

The woman opened her eyes, her smile remaining on her face. “I was expecting to find Mr. Elliot. He was very concerned about Ms. Perez’s well-being earlier and was considering going to check on her.” Her smile faded when she realized Oliver wasn’t being very receptive to her presence. “Is something the matter, Mr. Barker?”

“Who are you and why are you here?”

She stayed quiet, the elevator at the end of the hall opening and Nathaniel hurried out with a notebook in hand. “That’s the spirit’s true form, in its true form it can completely wipe someone’s existence from the island.”

The woman turned her head back to Oliver, her face completely void of emotion. “Correct. From what I’ve been noticing, Ms. Perez is a constant threat to the security of my people and I. She was chosen to be here because of her intelligence, however her behavior is far out of hand and it has spiraled far beyond what we can control.”

“Who’s we?”

She pointed at Nathaniel, then at Oliver. “You two have been spiritually bound to the island. If I thrive, you thrive. If I fall, you fall. I won’t feel anything, but you two will.” She attempted to look past Oliver, who moved where she moved. “If you hand her over, I will make your problems go away. The incident with Ms. Forest, your sister’s perception of you, your eye. I can fix it all, you just need to let me in.”

Oliver looked at Nathaniel, who seemed to calm down significantly from when he first arrived on the floor. “Because you’re bound and you’re the one blocking the way, the spirit needs to be invited in. The spirit has at most five more minutes to possess the true form, for those five minutes you need to stay right where you are and don’t even think about allowing it in because your thoughts count as an invitation as well.”

“It is true, you can deny my entry but consider this, Mr. Barker, do you really want to wage a battle with the land that keeps you alive? The soil that this island posses-”

“Yeah, I do.” Oliver cut her off, fearing that if he let her continue that he would slip and start thinking about his options, letting her in being one of them. “You would think that being as powerful as you claim to be, you would have been able to foresee this situation before Purna even got here. Thinking about it, you said you expected Leo to be here instead of me so I’m starting to think that you don’t have a strong grip on the people here at all.”

The biggest difference between Brianne and the true form that Oliver noticed was the reactions they each had. What Oliver said would have had Brianne fuming, but the true form didn’t seem to care at all.

It wasn’t long before the true form disappeared, leaving Nathaniel and Oliver in the hallway.

“There’s a reason it was confused about you being there instead of Leo.” Nathaniel knocked on Leo’s door. “When I realized what was happening, I managed to get Leo awake and had Purna climb to his window. I was afraid I wouldn’t be on time to instruct you on what to do so I removed her from the situation.”

Leo’s door opened, he and Purna both stepped out and looked to be very confused. Leo looked at Nathaniel, having heard everything before he opened the door. “How did you do it?”

“You were completely asleep, it was harder for her because she was mostly awake and she’s the loosest connection right now. When you’re asleep, you’re completely at the mercy of the island and those bound to it. It’s when you’re most vulnerable.” Nathaniel paused, looking over to Oliver. “I was only able to reach Purna because Oliver surprised the spirit, he challenged it when it wasn’t expecting that.”

Purna went past Oliver, going into her apartment without saying a word to the three men. Leo looked at her, a somber look crossing his face as he turned to Oliver. “You should probably take care of that.” Leo went back into his apartment, shutting the door.

Nathaniel made eye contact with Oliver, prompting him to step out into the hallway and shut Purna’s door behind him. “You need to decide by the end of the night if you’re really going to risk everything to protect Purna. It’s completely possible to keep her alive and it would be beneficial to the cause that you were following before you were bound, but if you do that now and she finds a way to uncover the truth about the island, you and I will be dead. Tonight the true form was weak, the more it possesses, the stronger it becomes so tonight you need to decide if next time you’ll stay in the way or hand over Purna.”

“So you’re telling me now that it’s my life or hers?”

He nodded, looking to the ground. “I’m sorry, but yes. Unless something changes to reverse your binding or her loose connection, one of you will live and the other will die.”

“How do I change it?” [Declare intention to protect Purna]
“What are the chances of changing things?” [Declare intention to hand over Purna]

“How do I change things?” Oliver stayed focused on Nathaniel, once again noticing that Nathaniel never shifted to become another person whenever he looked at him.

“To become unbound, you have to go back to the island’s heart. If you maintain the relationship with the spirit that you have now, you should be able to relinquish your gift. If you unbind, you will be at the mercy of the island once again and there will realistically be nothing you can do to protect Purna. Her connection can be strengthened by taking her back to the island’s heart, either with Brianne or myself.” He looked sad, even a bit guilty. “You would be able to do it yourself, but I don’t want to teach you how to do it on someone that you care for.”

Oliver leaned on the door to Purna’s apartment, letting out a sigh. “I’m going to defend her as long as I can. Would it be possible to have her achieve her goal and unbind before anything happens to the island? Also, why haven’t you broken your binding if you don’t want it?”

“Because I’ve watched this same situation happen over and over again, I have seen so many people torn apart both metaphorically and physically by this island and I can’t handle seeing it happen anymore. If I’m not here to guide the residents, nobody is and that’s something that has been stuck on my soul for decades now.” He shook his head. “Your first question, I don’t have an answer for. The only way that would be possible is if you two were split up but you and I both know that if that happens, she’s done for.”

Oliver pushed himself off of the door with a shrug. “Then I’m going to give my life. I’m under the assumption that because the spirit was here to handle Purna and spent most of its strength on possession, not many people are going to forget today. Am I correct in that assumption?”

“Yes. I was supposed to do that but I ended up missing the time frame by getting into Leo’s head. She won’t know that I didn’t do it because I did get into Leo’s mind so there’s a positive.” Nathaniel turned away but froze in place. “You’re in for a rollercoaster ride whenever you go into Purna’s apartment. She’s regaining her memories and she’s completely aware of the history you two have had, her memories of you are going to become your memories so long as you’re in her presence until there’s nothing left to remember.”

---

Oliver met Purna in 2016, it was the same year that Olivia met Purna and the year before Olivia left home.

The first time the two had met was during a case that put the students against each other. Most cases were easy to win and never really led to anything besides a grade for Purna and her classmates.

It was a chance encounter that occurred outside of the courthouse, Purna overheard Olivia expressing her frustrations to her own lawyer, who seemed to be very unresponsive to her. “I really can’t help but feel that you’re not even trying to push the case. I need this to go through because I feel unsafe, so what can I do to help you feel more compelled to take this seriously?”
Purna listened to Olivia beg her lawyer to give her a chance before the older man shook his head in what seemed to be disappointment. “You need to find a different lawyer or put your story together because nothing of what you say adds up. Your story changes so frequently and I’m grateful that there’s no jury because this would be humiliating for you.”

That was when she stepped in, her focus being only Olivia rather on her lawyer. “Why do you keep changing your story? What’s the charge?”

“It’s possible she keeps changing her story because she’s lying.” The older man next to Purna looked down to her, studying her. “Law student, huh? She’s part of a domestic violence case against her husband. He broke the no contact order and she keeps covering for him.”

“I wasn’t talking to you but since you want to be spoken to, I’ll address you.” Purna turned to the older man, her stare immediately challenging him. “I’m sure you’ve already asked why, but have you even made an attempt to actually know your client? Have you taken a moment to understand her and her husband's relationship?”

“I’ll remind you, you’re a student and you’re stepping out of line by challenging me like this in front of my own client.”

Purna shrugged, looking to back down for a moment. “You should have been challenged when the case first started. You wouldn’t have been challenged if you would have removed yourself from the conversation so it’s entirely your fault that this has occurred.”

Purna left Olivia with her lawyer in front of the courthouse, the man and woman both seeming very confused by the abrupt end to the conversation and the student who neither had a name for.

Olivia told Oliver and their parents about the conversation as they left for lunch. It was once they returned from lunch that Olivia learned that Purna was going to be studying under her own lawyer, which seemed to upset Purna while amusing Olivia’s lawyer.

It only took about five minutes before the lawyer and the student started arguing with each other in harsh whispers that could really only be caught by Olivia and her family. From what Oliver gathered, it was because Olivia’s lawyer hadn’t been keeping any notes through the trial and Purna was completely clueless on where they were in the trial.

Their argument stopped and Purna devoted her attention to listening to Olivia’s husband, making notes of her own throughout the entire day. At the day’s dismissal, she left with Olivia, keeping their conversation very quiet as they walked.

After saying goodbye to Olivia, Purna pulled Oliver to the side. “You’re her brother, yeah?”

“Yeah, you’re the student lawyer.” He could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t impressed. “Sorry, I thought we were pointing out the obvious.”

She tilted her head for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m blanking on it, what’s your name?”

“Oliver.”

She held out her hand, shaking his as soon as he held out his hand. “Purna Perez.” Her attention quickly diverted to the courthouse doors where Oliver looked to see Olivia’s husband and his lawyers motioning for Purna to go to them. She then turned back to Oliver, taking her hand back. “I need to handle this, but it’s of extreme importance that I speak with someone from Olivia’s family so please don’t leave.”

Purna turned her back to Oliver and went back to the front of the courthouse. Oliver couldn’t help but watch because it was quite unusual for Tad’s lawyers to talk to anyone, especially Olivia’s lawyers. Watching their body language, he felt like they were confronting Purna but he didn’t understand why they would be doing that when she hasn’t really done anything yet.

The lawyers talking to her stayed stern in the face while Purna nodded along, eventually abruptly turning her back to them and waving goodbye while shaking her head. She stopped whenever she reached Oliver, briefly looking over her shoulder. “I don’t know where the bus stop is, can you show me?”

He looked back at the lawyers, seeing them talking with each other while staring at her. He nodded and led her away from the courthouse. “What happened with them?”

Despite asking for directions, Purna seemed to know the way to the bus stop just fine. In fact, she was leading Oliver. “What happened was a group of old men just tried to intimidate me and threatened to get me kicked out of school and deported.” She looked back at Oliver, noticing the look of confusion on his face. “Yes, deported. I’m from Colombia and I’m here on a student visa.”

“That sounds right from what I’ve heard about his team so far. Don’t let it get to you, you seem to have what it takes to make an actual case instead of stooping to just threatening other people to get your way.”

They talked about the case so far until they reached the bus stop where Purna gave Oliver her phone number, asking that he would call if Olivia gave in and broke the no contact order as Purna suspected she would.

That happened in April of 2016. From April until January in 2017, Oliver ended up having to call Purna at least twice a week because Olivia made some decision that jeopardized her case. He had started inviting her to family events, knowing that it was almost certain that Olivia would mess up during family gatherings. The routine was like clockwork; they would go to court, Oliver would walk Purna to the bus stop, later in the evening he would have to call her because of Olivia, she would drop everything and show up to diffuse the situation, then he would just give her a ride home at the end of the night.

The second week of January was their mother’s birthday and their parents' anniversary, which they wanted to spend with their children every year. Every year Olivia and Oliver would return home for the week. This particular January, Olivia’s husband and Purna would also be there, which normally wouldn’t be an issue.

What made it an issue was the inability to leave the house after a blizzard hit.

Oliver and Olivia’s parents had grown to enjoy Purna’s company, they believed she was pretty quick on her feet and she always had an interesting take on whatever topic was brought to the table. They had said she had a different perspective that challenged their own, but they liked to hear what she had to say.

The first night of the seven that they would be stuck inside the house started fairly normally. Oliver and Purna got to the house before Olivia and her husband, they talked with Oliver’s parents for a while before Olivia got there. Oliver broke off to talk to Olivia, Purna stayed in the kitchen with their mother, and Olivia’s husband went down to the basement with their father.

It was pretty early in the evening when Olivia halted the conversation with her brother, the two siblings looking out the front window. “It’s not looking great out there, you think you should take Purna home?” She looked slightly concerned. “Do you think you would even be able to make it to the campus and back here before it gets worse?”

“If I left like right now then yeah, I’d probably be able to make it back but I don’t think she’ll leave so long as he’s here with you.” He got off of the couch, going into the kitchen where Purna was talking to his mom about Santa Fe. Their conversation stopped when he walked in the room, he pointed to the window above the kitchen sink. “It’s starting to look rough out there, do you want to go home?”

She gave a soft smile and shook her head. “No, I’m okay. Thanks, though.”

Dinner the first night went by peacefully, nobody really had anything negative to say. It was clear to Oliver and Olivia that Purna and Tad had issues with each other, but they were both remaining civil for the night and actually both seemed to be enjoying their time.

They watched a movie to finish off the night and most everyone was in bed by midnight. Purna and Oliver stayed up a bit longer because she had some reading to do for her classes. He stayed up with her to listen to her read, knowing that reading out loud would help her understand the material.

The third night stuck in the house was a bit difficult for everyone involved. Olivia’s husband had been tired of being around her family since the first night and he made it very clear to everyone else how he felt.

That night during dinner, he had drunk more than enough to keep his thoughts flowing all night. Olivia seemed to be very uncomfortable and told him multiple times to slow down, which only encouraged him to drink more. Olivia’s mother was the only he would respond to and it was only because he was frustrated with hearing other people talk to him.

“I never tell anyone else how to have a good time, is it that difficult to keep y’all’s thoughts to yourselves?”

Purna looked up from her plate, seeing Olivia’s husband was staring directly at her as if he had been talking to her. She looked around the table before shaking her head and looking back down. “I’m not going to argue with you here.”

“Why not?” HIs gaze stayed fixed on her, knowing that she really wasn’t going to speak against him anywhere other than the courtroom. “You have no problem treating me like dirt anywhere else, why does it matter here?”

“I’m not working right now. My presence here is not one of a professional, it’s that of an individual.”

Oliver could tell by his brother-in-law’s demeanor that he had no intentions of leaving Purna alone, he wanted her to get mad. “Tad, let’s go into the living room. I want to talk to you alone.”

Tad watched Oliver get out of his seat but stayed put, just watching him. “No, I want to hear what you have to say in front of your family. We’re all pretty close here, no need to keep a secret.”

“Get up, it wasn’t an offer.” Oliver pushed in his chair, waiting for Tad in the doorway. “We’re talking alone because you don’t deserve the attention that you’re vying for right now but you’re not going to sit there and disrespect everyone at that table, especially not after everything you’ve done and said to Olivia.”

Tad got up and followed Oliver out of the room, using the wall as a guide on his way out. Going into the living room, Tad grabbed Oliver by the shoulder and pulled him close. “If you ever talk to me like that again, we’re going to have major issues.”

“Don’t touch me.” Oliver pulled himself away from Tad. “We already have major issues because you’ve spent your entire marriage to my sister abusing her in just about any way that you can. You do that because you’re insecure, right?”

“Insecure?” Tad laughed, leaning on the wall. “I’m pretty secure. It’s that I know what belongs to me and I know how to take what I want.”

“So you’re not insecure, but you didn’t trust Olivia to go see her family by herself for one day. Those are pretty conflicting to me.” Oliver had to think over what he was saying very carefully, knowing that what he didn’t want to do was set Tad off. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about being stuck here, none of us are thrilled with it but lay off the drink. Everyone else is stressed out in this situation and you’re making it worse.”

Oliver left Tad in the living room by himself, rejoining the conversation with his parents, Olivia, and Purna. Tad eventually came back into the room but he stayed quiet, his eyes never left Purna and the anger never left his eyes.

---

Oliver saw Purna sitting on her bed, going through the shoe box that she had gotten back from Melanie. She didn’t look up when he entered the apartment, instead she stayed focused on the box and its contents. “Do you think that now that it’s being pieced together that Olivia and Tad know?”

“Maybe. I didn’t remember anything until you broke through so maybe if someone connected to an individual breaks through then they start to, that would be a Nathaniel question.”

She got out of bed, going into the closet and quickly getting changed. “I would recommend you get ready if you’re going to come with me. I need to know what’s out there so I’m going to wake Leo and Melanie up and find out what there is to understand about this place.”

Oliver did as she said, getting changed and then leaving the apartment with her. Leo was already ready to go once they got to his door. The three of them went in the elevator, hitting the button for the tenth floor.

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor. Three people stepped on it. Frank stood next to Leo, Nathaniel stood next to Oliver, and Tad stood next to Purna, a sudden tension filling the elevator.

She turned her head to face Tad for a split second. “What are you going to the tenth floor for? And you, Nathaniel?”

Tad didn’t respond to her, but Nathaniel did without hesitation. “Crowd control. It’s already bad up there and it’s going to get worse in thirty seconds, and then detrimental in about two minutes.”

The doors to the elevator opened to the tenth floor, the first thing greeting the people on the elevator being an argument between Zoey and Brianne. “And what about Chaz? What really happened to him?” Zoey stood in between her father and her mother while Olivia remained by her own door, Melanie stood by her side.

The group got off of the elevator and Tad immediately went to Olivia, Frank went with him. Nathaniel went to break up the argument and Leo waved Melanie over.

There was a lot going on and as Nathaniel said, it got worse two minutes later when Kelly and Nolan ended up on the tenth floor. Kelly went straight to confront Brianne while Nolan stayed by Oliver, Leo, Purna, and Melanie. “I tried to stop her but she’s really upset. I don’t even know what it’s about, she won’t talk to me.”

Oliver continued just watching until Kelly got chest to chest with Brianne, screaming in her face and pulling away from Nathaniel any time he tried to grab her. He turned to Leo for a moment, motioning towards Olivia and Tad. “Watch them, I’ll handle Kelly.”

“Why do you care so much about where Chaz is?” Brianne was still trying to defend herself from Zoey while attempting to ignore Kelly. “What was Chaz to you?”

Oliver waited until Nathaniel grabbed Kelly and pulled her away again before he put himself between Brianne and Kelly. “Zoey, Chaz is dead, he was a sacrifice to the island.” He saw Mark’s face fall, Zoey went completely silent as Kelly tried to get past Oliver. It was when he looked at her face that he saw she was beet red with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Kelly, what’s going on with you?”

“My dad, I know who he is and I know that she knows too! She knew this whole time and was just leading me on!” Kelly stopped trying to pass Oliver, the small girl started trembling as she tried to stop her own tears. “She knew, I know, and he won’t know. She told me that she’s going to make sure he doesn’t remember me.”

Oliver looked to Nathaniel, who looked just as shocked as he was. “I don’t even know who her parents are.”

Oliver turned back to Brianne, seeing a blank stare on her face. She looked exhausted. “Who are her parents?”

Brianne looked away instead of responding, prompting Oliver to return his attention to Kelly. “It’s Leo. She told me that Leo is my dad.”

All conversations in the hall stopped as all eyes fell on Kelly. Leo shook his head. “There’s no way that’s possible, I refuse to believe it.”

Purna crossed her arms and nodded. “I agree with Leo, I don’t think it’s the truth. Kelly, you know that she knows what your big goal is here, she is going to mislead you and attempt to hinder you because she doesn’t want you to know any more than you already do. You can’t fall into that trap.”

Frank and Oliver made eye contact, Nathaniel breaking into the conversation before either of them could say anything. “There’s something out there and everyone in this hallway needs to go confront it, we don’t have time for this.”

Leo whispered something to Purna, getting back on the elevator. Tad was the first one to recognize Leo’s disappearance. “Where did he go? Nathaniel literally just said that we all needed to be here.”

“He went to the roof to try and spot what Nathaniel was talking about because he didn’t think anyone was going to make a move quick enough.” Purna pushed the button for the elevator, immediately realizing there was a problem whenever Nathaniel rushed to the doors.

“Why didn’t you go with him?” He then turned his attention to Melanie. “Why did neither of you go with him? You two have both been conscious long enough to realize that you never split up on this island!”

Oliver turned back to question Brianne, only to find that she was now missing and Nathaniel was giving up on the elevator and speaking to himself in hushed whispers. He then turned and walked to Oliver, holding up two fingers. “What is going on with you?”

“Leo’s about to be pushed to his death and we have a very small window to stop it. I need you to focus and follow my lead, I need you for this because I can’t handle it on my own.”

---

After going to the roof, Leo walked around the edge of the building to try and see what Nathaniel was talking about.

He walked the roof twice without results so he climbed onto the edge, looking out towards the beach.

It was only when he turned to start walking to the right that he finally saw something, standing on the same edge that he was. He couldn’t make out what the figure was in the dark of night, only occasionally seeing a thin cloth flowing in the wind.

“What are you doing out here? It’s very late, everyone should be asleep.” Leo called out to the figure, hoping that acknowledging them would send them away.

He tried to step back onto the roof’s ground, his body seeming to hit a wall as he tried to step down. The figure started to gravitate towards him, causing him to start walking backwards.

As he stepped closer to the corner of the building where the front wall met the right wall, his left foot very briefly slipped off the edge, his body immediately tensed up as he was almost certain he was going to fall.

Leo stood in place for a moment, the figure continued going towards him as he felt his chest closing up, his thoughts unclear to himself. “Please, stop. I don’t know what it is you want from me.”

“I want you to beg for your life.” The figure only stopped when it was directly in front of him. He could hear a woman’s voice that was unrecognizable but couldn’t make out any feminine or masculine features in the moonlight. “I want you to beg for your life so I can take it, so I can finally make you feel what I felt.”

Leo’s breathing grew rapid as he tried to back away again, his entire body trembling. “I don’t know what you are.”

“You know exactly what I am.” The figure moved as he did. “You know exactly who I am.” The only thing Leo could figure out from this figure was that it was angry, it wanted vengeance. “You know exactly what you did to me, Leo Elliot.”

Leo backed away, trying to regain his balance as he walked the tightrope that was the edge of the ten floor building. He heard a voice in his head, whispering to him as he backed away. "Do you remember when I asked you if you were afraid of heights and you said no?"

Nathaniel. The whispers were from Nathaniel, but Leo couldn’t see him. “Yes, I remember.”

“Close your eyes and don’t look down.” At this point, Leo couldn’t tell whether he was hearing the figure in front of him or Nathaniel. He knew that he only had one choice and that was to listen to what he was told.

He closed his eyes.

He closed his eyes, his body suddenly feeling weightless. The only thing he could feel was the night air pushing against his body, the one smell he could pin was the smell of the beach’s salt water.

He knew to the left of him was a ten story drop that would kill him and to the right of him was his best chance at safety, but he couldn’t move a bit. He couldn’t hear anything but rushing water as if he was on the beach.

He felt a cold set of hands from in front of him grabbing onto his shoulders and another set of hands from behind him grabbing his waist. He felt the two sets of hands fighting to send him to the right or to the left for about a minute before both sets of hands left his body.

“Open your eyes, Leo.”

Leo opened his eyes to see the back of a boy, his hair dyed a pastel blue. The blue haired boy stood to block Leo from the figure. “Tad, are you in place or not?!”

“Yes!” Leo heard Tad call out from the side of the building. He looked down to see that Tad was looking up to him from a window on the tenth floor. “I got you covered over here, Nolan’s got your front.”

Nolan nodded, backing away from the figure until his back was to Leo’s chest. Leo tried backing away only to feel someone standing behind him. He turned to see Purna with her back to him, standing a few inches away from Nathaniel.

He looked back to the roof’s ground to see Melanie was standing to block Oliver from Leo. “Where’s Kelly? Where’s Brianne?”

“Brianne vanished, Kelly and Zoey went to find her. When we got here, Nathaniel and Oliver were trying to help whatever that thing is and drop you from the building.” Melanie didn’t break her attention from Oliver. “Mark went to go get Olivia.”

Leo could tell just by looking at Nathaniel and Oliver that they weren’t in control, they had no clue what they were doing. They both just seemed empty.

Nolan reached behind himself and past Leo, grabbing hold of Purna’s arm. “Melanie, you need to get Purna off the edge. It’s going to push both of them.”

“I can’t move or he’s going to move.” The fear in Melanie’s voice mimicked Nolan’s. She reached behind herself to grab Purna’s left ankle with her right hand and Leo’s right ankle with her left hand. “I can’t do anything more.”

“Melane! Listen to me!” Nolan quickly realized that pleading with her was going to do nothing. “Purna, move.”

“No.” Purna reached behind her, grabbing Nolan’s free arm and linking their arms together to encase Leo. “If I move, he dies. If you move, he dies. If Melanie moves, he dies. We can’t do anything until Kelly comes back.”

Nolan looked away for just one second to call out to Tad. He looked back up to see Nathaniel standing in front of him, the figure now settled in front of Purna.

“Tad! You have to catch Leo!” She called out to Tad, taking her arms back from Nolan and opening a brief space between her, Nolan, and Leo.

“I will!”

Once Tad responded, Purna turned her head to briefly look at Leo. A look of pure sadness lingered on her face. “I hope you can forgive me.”

---

“I hope you can forgive me.” It was the last thing that Melanie and Nolan heard before Purna grabbed Leo herself and pushed him off the edge.

Nolan couldn’t react before she threw herself off of the edge. The two going over the edge pulled Melanie against the half wall that they were standing on since she still had their ankles in her hands.

Melanie looked at her now empty hands, tears filling her eyes as she looked back at Nolan. “Did Tad catch them? Are they okay?” Nolan didn’t respond, he continued looking down at the ground ten floors below them. “Nolan, please answer me!”

Ahead of her, Melanie looked to see that Oliver had disappeared, as had Nathaniel and the figure that was in front of Purna just a few minutes earlier.

Nolan got off of the half wall as the door to the roof opened and Kelly, Zoey, Mark, and Olivia stood in the way of him as he tried to exit. “Nolan, what’s going on?”

Melanie watched the boy try to stifle his cries as he continued to try to push past them. Mark grabbed Nolan by his shoulders, looking him in the eyes. “Where are Leo and Purna?”

Nolan fell to his knees, Mark still holding on to him as his sobs grew louder. Kelly got on the ground next to him, trying to look him in the face. “What happened to them?”

Melanie looked as the crowd split. Tad came through the door with Frank and went to her, taking her hands and putting something in them, holding his hands there.

The look in his eyes told her all the answers that Nolan couldn't give her. He looked sorry. He got to his feet and left the roof as Nolan pushed away from Kelly and Mark, leaving in a hurry himself.

Melanie opened her hand to see a watch that she knew belonged to Leo resting in her palm. She covered her mouth with her free hand, putting her head down as she rushed through the crowd on the roof.

End of Act 1, Chapter 2.